The Sherlock Holmes Museum, London

During my last visit of London in November 2014, my friend, boyfriend and I had some time to kill before heading to Wembley to see the football match between England and Slovenia. While we were in the Marylebone area and my friend is a Shelock Holmes fan, we decided to take a look at Sherlock Holmes Museum.

The Sherlock Holmes Museum is located at the Baker Street, at the approximate address where this well known fictional character used to live in the A.C. Doyle’s stories. We haven’t done any research prior to our visit, so we ended up waiting in a queue in front of the entrance to the museum. Luckily, we figure it out quickly, we can’t buy ticket here, but in the shop at the right side of the entrance. My boys went there and pick up the tickets while I was holding our place in the queue. Soon after they return, we were allowed to go in by the police officer (aka actor in a police uniform) standing guard at the door.

The Museum (Source: wikipedia)

Museum is stretching over three floors of a typical Victorian house and tries to picture an atmosphere of Sherlock’s late Victorian era. First two floors were made into Holmes’, Mrs Hudson’s and Watson’s bedrooms and living quarters. Upper floor rooms are displaying scenes from Sherlock’s cases.

Wax figures displaying scenes from the stories

There is also a folder of letters addressed to Holmes by his fans from all over the world. Some really believe that the Holmes was a real person and the whole set-up is for real.

One of the letters I found amusing

I have never read the stories, but I watched the BBC’s series with Benedict Cumberbatch in a role of Sherlock Holmes. I liked the series and was keen on learning more about the original stories. The museum rooms are filled with all kind of objects, but there are very few explanations provided. There is nothing to learn here. Nothing is given an context. If you don’t know what you’re looking at, you come away from it knowing no more than you did on entering. None of my company was neither inspired to read the stories, nor to return to the museum.

Snap from the exhibition

The presented objects also lack authenticity, but that I can forgive. After all, how authentic can the museum dedicated to the fictional character be?

Wax figures

Unfortunately, museum’s main (and only) target audience are Sherlock Holmes fans. Everyone else is left out. I believe, the visit could be fun experience for a fan. To others, I would recommend to avoid this rather pricey tourist trap and visit any other London museum. They are much better than Sherlock Holmes museum and most of them have no admission.

After a long-running dispute, the Sherlock Holmes Museum finally received long wanted street number 221B in 1990 (replacing the 239).

Practical information:

• Entrance fee: 10 GBP/person
• The nearest Tube station: Baker Street Station
• Access and facilities for visitors with mobility impairments are non existent.